Barb Darrow writes in Fortune, "Dave Donatelli, the executive who has led Oracle's hardware -
or 'converged infrastructure' effort - is now also heading the company's
cloud and industry sales strategy teams, Fortune has learned.

Sources close to the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company confirmed the change,
which has not been made public but was apparently announced internally a few weeks ago.
Oracle had no comment on the move.

As part of this expansion, Donatelli will also take on the responsibilities of Shawn Price,
Oracle's senior vice president of cloud, at least for the time being.
Price - a former SAP executive who joined Oracle in October 2014 -
is taking time off, but a specific reason has not been made public..."

Kathy Miedema blogs, "Observers of the night sky have a new, easy-to-use, interactive tool for finding up-to-the-minute information about asteroids and connecting with a like-minded community of skygazers, thanks in part to Oracle Group Vice President Jeremy Ashley and his Oracle Applications User Experience (UX) team..."

Mark blogs in LinkedIN, "Here's the reality faced by CEOs of most public companies:

Taking market share, which is much harder than piggybacking on GDP growth, is the only way to satisfy those outsize expectations.

To take market share, CEOs have to put their companies in a position to innovate and deliver better products and services faster than the competition.

Cloud computing is the best mechanism to enable CEOs to drive that level of innovation.

Hard-charging startups and powerful incumbents alike are adopting cloud computing for one simple reason: it frees up more resources for innovation. Cloud isn't simply about whether an application is run from a server accessible via the internet or whether a database sits in a remote location managed by a cloud provider..."

"2016 has been the year artificial intelligence transitioned from sci-fi high concept to everyday reality.

AI, and the branch of this discipline called deep learning, crashed the public consciousness on March 9 when Google DeepMind's AlphaGo program beat South Korean champion Lee Se-dol at ancient Chinese game Go.

Since then, barely a week has gone by without a fresh breakthrough - or scare story.

True AI implies a change in the relationship between machine and human - from predictable task worker reliant on our instructions, to a system which has the capacity to surprise and surpass us..."

"It is no doubt that the sub-field of machine learning / artificial intelligence has increasingly gained more popularity in the past couple of years. As Big Data is the hottest trend in the tech industry at the moment, machine learning is incredibly powerful to make predictions or calculated suggestions based on large amounts of data. Some of the most common examples of machine learning are Netflix's algorithms to make movie suggestions based on movies you have watched in the past or Amazon's algorithms that recommend books based on books you have bought before..."

"A study by Stanford researchers finds computers can predict lung cancer patient outcomes better than pathologists. While the study is specific to the medical profession, it illustrates the promise and potential of machine learning for IT professionals in any industry.

For IT organizations, machine learning is looking like an essential capability in the decade ahead. For the past few months, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has been extolling the value of AI and machine learning to his company. Gartner has added machine learning to its 2016 Hype Cycle, putting it at the peak of inflated expectations..."

"While market leaders and fast followers have not yet achieved mass personalization, the next rush is focused on investments in artificial intelligence. Searching for a competitive advantage and fearful of disruption, board rooms and CXO's have rushed to artificial intelligence as the next big thing. The investment in pilots for AI's subsets of machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and cognitive computing have moved from science projects to new digital business models powered by smart services..."

"Solid-state arrays (SSAs) have matured beyond performance-oriented workloads, and the benefits are now compelling for all primary storage plus old and new unexpected workloads. This Magic Quadrant will help IT leaders better understand SSA vendors' positioning in the market.

Strategic Planning Assumptions

By 2021, 50% of data centers will use SSAs for high-performance computing and big data workloads, up from less than 1% today.

By 2020, 50% of data centers will use only SSAs for primary data, instead of hybrid arrays, up from less than 1% today..."

Some astounding products were demonstrated at the recent Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, Calif. Seagate announced a 60 TB solid-state drive in a 3.5 inch form factor while Toshiba and Samsung unveiled plans for 100 TB 2.5 inch solid-state drives. In addition to these high-capacity SSDs, vendors also released several new super-fast SSDs, including a Seagate drive promising 10 gigabytes per second, well ahead of where we are today..."

"The world's first self-driving taxis will be picking up passengers in Singapore starting Thursday.

Select members of the public will be able to hail a free ride through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup. While multiple companies, including Google and Volvo, have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for several years, nuTonomy says it will be the first to offer rides to the public. It will beat ride-hailing service Uber, which plans to offer rides in autonomous cars in Pittsburgh, by a few weeks.

The service will start small -- six cars now, growing to a dozen by the end of the year..."

"Video communications platform-as-a-service (PaaS) technology can help businesses and IT build real-time video applications with ease and reduced cost...

The video platform as a service (PaaS) market is forecast to grow from $60 million in 2016 to $1.7 billion in 2020, a 130% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to an Aug. 23 report from IDC.

PaaS is a category of cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app..."

"Social media has been a net positive in the battle for weather awareness, but what does the future hold?...

Technology has revolutionized severe weather prediction, but the latest breakthrough isn't a new radar.

'Social media has opened up new communication pathways that were never there before, two-way pathways,' National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Smith said. 'Weather stations have been screaming in all caps for decades, but now we have a way to listen and talk back and forth. It's certainly changed our jobs.'

Smith said misinformation happens, but social media has been a net positive in the battle for weather awareness..."

"What a classically-trained guitarist with a Master's Degree in counseling brings to the table as head of cybersecurity and privacy at one of the world's major healthcare organizations...

Bishop Fox's Vincent Liu sat down recently with GE Healthcare Cybersecurity and Privacy General Manager Richard Seiersen in a wide-ranging chat about security decision making, how useful threat intelligence is, critical infrastructure, the Internet of Things, and his new book on measuring cybersecurity risk. We excerpt highlights below. You can read the full text here..."

"MIT researchers have found a way to transfer wireless data using a smartphone at a speed about three times faster and twice as far as existing technology.

The researchers developed a technique to coordinate multiple wireless transmitters by synchronizing their wave phases, according to a statement from MIT on Tuesday. Multiple independent transmitters will be able to send data over the same wireless channel to multiple independent receivers without interfering with each other..."

"The state Department of Transportation wants to see if the new technology could assist with bridge inspections....

As cars zoomed across the twin spans of Gold Star Memorial Bridge on Tuesday afternoon, a group of engineers and aviation experts gathered underneath the bridge to operate a vehicle of an entirely different sort.

Dressed in yellow vests and white construction hats, they ran through a safety checklist for the launch of an unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone, that the state Department of Transportation was testing for the first time on Tuesday..."

"Researchers have demonstrated the 3-D printing of shape-shifting structures that can fold or unfold to reshape themselves when exposed to heat or electricity, an approach also known as '4-D printing.' The micro-architected structures, including boxes, conductive devices, and a stent, were fabricated from a conductive, environmentally responsive 'smart' ink..."

"From Star Trek to The Jetsons, futuristic technology depicted in sci-fi movies and TV shows has made it into the real world. Here's a look at 10 that are on the brink of becoming reality...

Science fiction TV shows and movies are filled with cool technology. From Star Trek and its transporter and food replicator - to name just a couple of things - to The Minority Report and its air touch displays and jet packs.

Some of that futuristic technology has arrived. For examples, 'push to talk' mobile devices are very close to Star Trek like communicators. And the video conferencing depicted in The Jetsons is now available on nearly every home computer..."

"One particular YouTube video perfectly sums up how the economy works. And if it doesn't make you want to buy bitcoins (or wish you had more), then perhaps nothing will.

In simple, easy to understand language, this video - which is just over one minute in length - gives a simple economics 101 lesson on how economic stimulus works; on the different schools of thoughts; and on when - and if - state intervention in the economy is necessary. Warning: the video might not leaving you feeling any better off about the economy than before..."

"Four major world banks are set to announce the creation of a new blockchain-based digital currency, and are hoping to make it the global standard for settlements.

The plan for the originally-titled 'utility settlement coin' comes from UBS, Deutsche Bank, Santander, and BNY Mellon. Broker ICAP is also joining them with the aim of convincing central banks to use the new currency starting in 2018..."

"The Defense Department increasingly relies on software for everything from weapons systems to accounting, but it is failing to capitalize on the power of open-source software, according to a report from the Center for a New American Security.

In 'Open Source Software and the Department of Defense,' CNAS argues that a number of cultural factors, biases and regulatory barriers are keeping DOD from embracing open-source options..."

"Open source software for business is -- yes, you guessed it -- big business.

According to Gartner, businesses will likely spend $321 billion on enterprise software in 2016, 4.2 percent more than last year. With business application expenses taking an ever-larger share of their IT budgets, many organizations are looking for ways to cut costs, and that leads many to consider open source software. In fact, a survey conducted by Black Duck Software found that 65 percent of companies were increasing their use of open source software in 2016..."

"What Agile means to your typical operations staff member is, 'More junk coming faster that I will get blamed for when it breaks.' There always is tension between development and operations when something goes south. Developers are sure the code worked on their machine; therefore, if it does not work in some other environment, operations must have changed something that made it break. Operations sees the same code perform differently on the same machine with the same config, which means if something broke, the most recent change must have caused it..."

"The MySQL development team recently made a new labs release of the Group Replication plugin for MySQL Server," writes Trond Humborstad. "This is a preview of a new plugin that adds virtually synchronous replication with support for multi-master or active/active update-anywhere replication groups to the already strong lineup of native replication options in MySQL.

Docker is a great fit for this kind of dynamic, multi instance MySQL setup, and containerization is in general a very convenient way to try out new technologies and prototype new solutions..."

"MySQL Connector/Net 7.0.4 is the first development release that expands cross-platform support to Linux and OS X when using Microsoft's .NET Core framework. Now, .NET developers can use the X DevAPI with .NET Core and Entity Framework Core (EF Core) 1.0 to create server applications that run on Windows, Linux and OS X. We are very excited about this change and really look forward to your feedback on it!..."

Elena Malykhina writes in Forbes,
"Many nonprofits and small to midsize businesses feel stuck with legacy systems they know are inefficient-but they think they don't have the money or the resources to modernize.

The YMCA of Silicon Valley is proving otherwise.

With ten branches and 92 satellite locations serving approximately 100,000 families, this YMCA Association has ambitious expansion plans. CFO Ed Barrantes is setting up infrastructure to double the number of people served, helping even more families in this high cost-of-living area get access to healthy-living and youth-development programs..."

"Time to market. Talent acquisition. Customer feedback loops. If you're not faster than the competition in all of these domains, your business is going nowhere fast," writes Rob Preston
in Forbes.

"That's what digital transformation is all about - but digital transformation isn't for wimps. It's an ongoing technical, procedural, organizational, financial, and cultural challenge, no matter the industry. It requires equal parts vision and doggedness..."

Zeynep blogs, "When Linus Torvalds sent his first email on August 25, 1991 announcing a project to create a new operating system, who could have imagined the impact it would have on the technology industry and how it would propel the concept of open source software development. Today, open source and Linux are used across the globe in almost every data center, powering trading platforms, processing millions of transactions each day and embedded in devices, from cell phones to televisions to refrigerators..."

"Cloud technologies are now becoming accepted and widely adopted. According to the Cloud Industry Forum, 80 per cent of UK companies are adopting cloud technology as a key part of their overall IT and business strategy. However, one of the perceived barriers to cloud adoption continues to be concerns around security and compliance, which was the key topic of discussion at a recent techUK panel in which iland took part. During this discussion, we talked about the fact that nine out of ten security professionals worry about cloud security..."

"Cloud storage pricing is in a race to zero. Basic storage services are now $0.015 per GB/month from major providers like AWS and Google Cloud.

Consumer and small business options like DropBox offer a limited amount of storage for free, and sell 1 TB for around $99/year - or less than a penny per GB/month. So why do some companies end up paying more than 20 times that for cloud storage?..."

"Few activities are more perilous than predicting the future of the tech industry. That goes double for cloud computing forecasts. Yet, with thoughtful deliberation and the appropriate amount of caution, you can get a fairly accurate read on what's to come in the increasingly competitive cloud services market.

Here's a quick look at several trends evident among leading cloud vendors and technologies through the first half of 2016, along with a look ahead at what awaits us for the second half of the year, and on through the next decade..."

"The competition between Azure and AWS has a lot riding on it: the cloud computing market continues to boom. IDC predicts that public cloud vendors will generate $96.5 billion in revenue this year, climbing to $195 billion by 2020.

Currently, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the undisputed cloud leader, with more than 30 percent of the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market according to Synergy Research Group. However, Microsoft Azure experienced 100 percent revenue growth during the second quarter, and now has a firm hold on second place with more than 10 percent of the market..."

The nature of work has evolved rapidly during the last few years. Modern coworkers often have very different roles and responsibilities, and many work from multiple locations. Email is no longer an efficient tool for many of the tasks today's professionals perform, and face-to-face meetings are increasingly a rarity.

Fortunately, a new generation of cloud-based collaboration tools are now available to help tackle some of these challenges. Here's a look at nine of the best options..."

"When migrating to a cloud-based environment, companies need to take a hard look at their needs and the security of their providers, as well as their own internal policies. Many companies don't take time to consider the risks of simply sharing cloud space with other organizations, for example, or how to match cloud security policies to those of the data center.

For organizations considering cloud migration, Radware provides nine proactive steps that companies can take to ensure a smooth transition and get tighter cloud security..."

"Thin margins, 24-hour customer care, and other concepts were alien to the software industry before cloud came along...

It's never easy being a software vendor. Demanding users, incredibly smart competitors, and rapidly evolving technology mean constantly being on top of your game. Now, cloud and Software as a Service have added a whole new dimension to what it means to be a software vendor..."

"Having policies in place can help keep employees from walking out the door with company information...

It may come as a surprise, but more likely than not, when employees leave a company they're taking company data with them. While it's not always out of malicious intent, the amount of unprotected company information that walks out the door can result in bigger losses in the future.

Biscom's national study around data in the workplace revealed that more than one in four employees leave their job with company data. The study spotlights employees as a big security vulnerability to business data. To help prevent this, Bill Ho, CEO of Biscom, offers a few tips to minimize this threat..."

"It can be hard to tell the difference in the midst of day-to-day activities, but it's important to know the level of your team's dysfunction...

Have you ever asked yourself, "Is the group of people I'm working with dysfunctional?" If you haven't, you're either oblivious or new to the work world. It's an important question to ask on a regular basis, because the problems that undermine collective success usually start as small issues, either between people on the team or between the team and its outside stakeholders..."

"Some of you may remember the TV game show The Weakest Link, during which a somewhat caustic Anne Robinson would declare one of the nine contestants the weakest link, and summarily kick them off the program.

Now, imagine Anne taking a job as an information security consultant, reviewing security and risk for a medium-sized corporation. I suspect that as she got to the portion of the review involving third-party suppliers, she would quickly yell out 'You are the weakest link. Goodbye'..."

"Organisations with a C-suite that prioritises cyber security are in a far better position to minimise risk, and are well placed to drive tangible business value...

It's safe to say that the evolution of digital technology has truly changed modern business practice.

From BYOD initiatives, remote working, and cloud based applications, to the growth of the corporate network to include supply chain members, contractors and part time workers, there are now many aspects of a network for hackers to choose from.

The problem is, these changes in how businesses operate are not being mirrored in changes to cyber security..."

"Your network and security teams may have different goals and objectives, but as networks grow more complex, it's time to get these two teams on the same page to help avoid miscommunication around security threats.

It's not surprising that network and security teams aren't always on the same page. After all, networks need to be fast and efficient, while security is about slowing things down and implementing extra steps to help meet security measures..."

"When Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell recorded their hit, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," they had no idea the lyrics would tell the tale of cyber criminals trying to infiltrate your data network more than 50 years later...

It's no wonder keeping systems and data secure lies at the heart of every CIO's agenda today. How can the cybersecurity issue be ignored? Headlines scream about data security breaches on such a regular basis that we've become fatigued by the news. Security teams are running full blast every day, but the entire organization must bring its A-game when it comes to staying vigilant and protecting data assets..."

"With product and technology improvements, data backup and disaster recovery are converging, but that doesn't necessarily mean your organization should drop one of the disciplines...

The backup vs. disaster recovery line is blurring. Backup applications can now do more frequent backups and provide recovery-in-place features that enable more rapid recoveries. In addition, replication applications that tend to focus on disaster recovery or business continuity are adding historical storing of replicated data as a key capability. The storing of previous versions of data allows these products to provide point-in-time recovery..."

"How accountable are leaders and team members in your organization? How strong are players' 'commitments to their commitments'?

Accountability seems like it should be simple. People commit to goals, projects, results, service activities, values and behaviors, etc., then do what they've promised to do, the way they've promised to do it. Easy, right?

If digital transformation, what IDC calls DX, is in your future - and IT IS - then the ugly truth is that your network infrastructure will have to change radically. Most of today's networks are based on technology that hasn't changed much over the last 30 years. But that technology is woefully inadequate for addressing all the new and emerging requirements of big data, analytics, mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), social media, security, and cloud..."

"Software-defined Wide Area Networking is red hot. It is safe to assume that, going forward, every multi-location business will rely on SD-WAN for a cost-effective, high-quality, unified network solution.

In fact, IDC recently released a report predicting SD-WAN revenue will reach $6 billion in 2020. Why? Because SD-WANs are secure, affordable and easy-to-use. Those three magic words are enough to turn any CEO's head, and the benefits go well beyond that. SD-WANs address a confluence of issues that multi-location businesses are facing right now.

Here are the top five reasons businesses need to consider an SD-WAN solution:..."

According to ESG research, 63 percent of networking and cybersecurity professionals working at enterprise organizations (i.e. more than 1,000 employees) believe network security operations is more difficult today than it was two years ago. Why? Because enterprises have to deal with more connected devices, network traffic and applications than two years ago..."

"A research team has learned how to make packet-forwarding chips more programmable...

Cloud computing is changing the demands on networks more quickly than ever. Now researchers say it's possible to program routers all the way down to their packet-forwarding chips in the quest to keep up.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and five other organizations have found a way to make data-center routers more programmable without making them slower. This could allow enterprises to take advantage of new traffic and congestion management algorithms without replacing their routers..."

"'Internet of Things' is a term that encompasses an incredibly broad realm of possibilities. Because connected technology can be applied in a multitude of ways across countless industries, this growing - yet nascent - concept is generating a lot of interest and curiosity.

However, with this intrigue comes misconceptions and generalizations that cloud reality..."

"On the back of some significant improvements in the last year and a half, Linux is now the model for software development...

At LinuxCon, Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation's executive director, said "Linux has gone far beyond what anyone could have expected" and that it's been the "most successful software project in history." He's right..."

"At LinuxCon, keynoters look back at 25 years of Linux, why the future is still bright, and why technology can have tangible benefits on the human condition...

Twenty-five years ago this week, Linus Torvalds posted a mailing list message announcing the birth of the operating system that we know today as Linux. At the LinuxCon conference that kicked off here today, the anniversary of Linux is being celebrated, along with discussion on how the same innovation that enables Linux can quite literally change the world..."

" This is not your dad's Microsoft. At LinuxCon, Wim Coekaerts, corporate VP of Microsoft Enterprise Open Source Group, came not merely to make peace with Linux, but to join forces with Linux and open-source software in a marriage of customer happiness...

Coekaerts, who joined Microsoft five months ago after heading Oracle's Linux efforts for many years, knows many of you won't buy this. In his LinuxCon keynote speech, Coekaerts admitted that 'A year ago I would not have considered working for Microsoft, but Microsoft has changed'..."

"If you need to navigate regularly between Linux and the Windows world, there are many applications that can make your job easier. We spotlight 21 quality applications that will pave the way.

Last week, we ran an article detailing how easy it is these days to jump back and forth between MacOS and Windows. We spotlighted 20 applications that are identical across both platforms.

As you might imagine, I got letters. Readers demanded to know why I didn't discuss Linux and how easy it is to switch between Linux and Windows. So that's what I'm doing here. While there aren't absolute brand-for-brand equivalents for about 30 percent of the applications, there are workable substitute solutions..."

At LinuxCon this week, Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation spoke words of admiration, praise, and excitement from the keynote stage, saying "Linux at 25 is a big thing" and "You can better yourself while bettering others at the same time."

To celebrate, we asked our readers what they love about Linux and rounded up 25 of their responses. Dive into the Linux love!..."

"It's no secret that bigger data centers benefit from economies of scale. It costs less to provide X amount of data center capacity in a massive warehouse-scale facility than it does in a small data center.

The number of factors influencing total data center cost is almost countless, but that economies of scale are real is generally accepted as a fact. However, little data has been available publicly on exactly how much of a difference those economies of scale can make. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute, funded by Emerson Network Power, aims to quantify this difference..."

"A POC can help avoid costly mistakes when buying software. Here are some tips to ensure a smooth process...

Have you ever skipped the proof-of-concept (POC) stage when buying software and regretted it? The POC is one of the most critical aspects of any IT purchase, and while it can sometimes be challenging to thoroughly test hardware, with software there's no excuse for failing to do so. The process is usually fairly easy, quick and non-disruptive, making it particularly difficult to later explain away a costly product shortcoming that even a basic POC would have unearthed..."

According to a March report from the Government Accountability Office, the 24 agencies participating in the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) racked up $2.8 billion in cost savings and avoidances by closing 3,125 data centers between fiscal years 2011 and 2015. Total FDCCI savings could jump to approximately $8.2 billion after agencies shutter another 2,078 data centers by the end of fiscal year 2019, the report states.

So what can state and local governments learn from the initiative's success?..."

"Nutanix and Simplivity come out on top, but Cisco, HPE and EMC look to take charge in the Hyperconverged market too...

For organizations that want the agility of public cloud infrastructure but want the security and peace of mind of hosting the hardware on their own premises, hyperconverged infrastructure has emerged as a dominant hardware platform for hosting private clouds, virtual desktops and new application development environments..."

"There's no way to sugarcoat it; the shortage of cyber security professionals is at an all-time high just as attacks are also reaching record levels.

By various estimates, there will be a global shortage of between four and six million security pros between now and 2020. The Peninsula Press project of the Stanford University Journalism Program determined that more than 209,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. were unfilled, with vacancies up 74% over the past five years. A recent Enterprise Strategy Group survey found that 46% of organizations say they have a 'problematic shortage' of cybersecurity skills..."

"If your organization doesn't run its own threat analysis center, it may be worth hiring a hunt team to watch your back. Here's what you need to know...

In response to sophisticated cyber-security threats that have emerged in the past few years, some organizations in industry and government have formed groups known as 'hunt teams' to defend their networks..."

"There's a widening gulf between organizations that adhere to best practices for privileged access management, according to BeyondTrust...

With 63 percent (2016 Verizon DBIR) of confirmed data breaches involving weak, default or stolen passwords, it's never been more important to apply discipline and accountability over enterprise credentials..."

"Everyone, from the small business owner, to senior executives in businesses of every shape and size are confronting a seemingly insurmountable problem: Constant and rising cyber security breaches. It seems no matter what we do, there is always someone that was hacked, a new vulnerability exploited, and millions of dollars lost..."

"In the sometimes uphill cyberdefense battle, with hackers getting more cunning and advanced by the minute, it's refreshing to learn this week that there are new tools that can aid in the fight against attacks, particularly concerning the most recent slew of ransomware outbreaks.

Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab announced that they have developed a handy decryption tool designed to liberate files being held ransom by the malware dubbed 'Wildfire.' What's even better is that victims can get their files back without having to pay the demanded ransom. According to a recent ZDNet article, this is all part of the original No More Ransom initiative..."

"We often hear about the risks of data breaches, but it's interesting to look at some root cause statistics...

Bitglass is a vendor in the cloud access security broker (CASB) space. What that means is that Bitglass is focused on ensuring organizations utilize strong security tools and processes to keep their data safe. It's a busy space and one in which being seen as a thought leader is important; hence, Bitglass and its competitors invest lots of effort in creating content that is broadly useful to the industry..."

Many threat actors behind distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against enterprises appear to be increasingly employing hit-and-run tactics to make their campaigns more effective. Security firm Imperva recently analyzed data collected from its customers while mitigating DDoS attacks on their networks between April 2015 and March 2016. The data showed a 211% increase year over year in the number of DDoS attacks directed against its customers. On average, Imperva mitigated about 445 DDoS attacks per week over the one-year period..."

"Hackers believe no password is safe from a determined attacker, but they agree that five key security measures can make it a lot harder to penetrate enterprise networks.

Whether they identify as white hats, black hats or something in-between, a majority of hackers agree that no password is safe from them - or the government for that matter. Regardless of where they sit with respect to the law, hackers mostly agree that five key security measures can make it a lot harder to penetrate enterprise networks..."

"In a technology-driven, increasingly digital world, you might think you need a computer science, engineering, technology, mathematics or other degree to succeed. Turns out that's far from the truth.

Arijit Sengupta, CEO of advanced analytics firm BeyondCore, holds a bachelor of science in computer science and a bachelor of arts in economics and fell one class short of having a minor in dance. He brings elements of all three to his daily work with BeyondCore, and some of the most valuable lessons he's learned have come from his liberal arts education and his dance training, he says..."

"Many employees do not feel super engaged at work, according to a recent survey from Appirio. The resulting report, titled "The Human Touch for Tech Talent: Employee Retention Could Be as Simple as 'Thank You,' " sheds light on how bad bosses fall short in motivating employees. Many supervisors fail to give credit where credit is due, for example, and others aren't helpful in helping their staffers advance in their careers. As for the outstanding qualities workers look for in a boss? ..."

"Only 65% of tech workers are satisfied with their work-life balance. Companies that want to attract and retain the best employees, and keep them productive, must consider more flexible work options...

Silicon Valley often brings to mind the image of a startup developer working late into the night, rushing to meet a tight deadline and bring their product to market before the competition. But those long hours can take a toll: Only 65% of tech workers said they were satisfied with their work-life balance, according to a recent survey from Comparably..."

"Sure, they seem like no big deal now. But be careful of these key areas of future regret

Scrolling through my social media feed, I noticed a college friend's photograph of his son's dormitory. My friend and I had been thick as thieves during our undergraduate years, and now his son was leaving home, and roughly the age his father was when he and I first met.

"When InformationWeek surveyed 100 IT leaders about their greatest mistakes, talent and staffing were among the many issues we heard about. Here, we focus on five of the biggest mistakes made in this category-and offer some advice on how you can learn from the pain of your peers.

What was the biggest mistake your IT organization made in the past 12 months?..."

"The rapid growth in the amount of data that organizations need to store is putting a strain on many. Mark Lewis, chief executive officer at Formation Data Systems, discusses five 'pitfalls' of storage in virtual environments..."

"Data guides sound decision making, which introduces new efficiencies and potential market opportunities for an organization. A truly data-driven organization does not necessarily or simply include bringing onboard data scientists or BI analyst to the IT department. It's an integration into the day-to-day operations.

Here are the core steps for transforming into data-driven operations:..."

"Many federal hospitals and health systems look toward the savings they expect from implementing big data models for health care analytics. However, cost containment without reducing quality of care is often both a central goal and a lead concern. By approaching the task properly, federal health care providers can leverage data analytics to control costs across care delivery and simultaneously account for the cost of implementation itself. The best place to start is identifying the type of problem where data analytics will have greatest return on investment..."

"Big data is best known for its volume, variety, and velocity -- collectively referred to as the '3 Vs' -- and all three of those traits make security an elusive goal. Targeting companies grappling with that challenge, the Cloud Security Alliance on Friday released a new report offering 100 best practices.

As its name would suggest, the CSA focuses on promoting the use of security best practices within the cloud computing world; corporate members include VMware, Microsoft, AWS, and Red Hat..."

"Data science interviews are daunting, complicated gauntlets for many. But despite the ways they're evolving, the technical portion of the typical data science interview tends to be pretty predictable. The questions most candidates face usually cover behavior, mathematics, statistics, coding, and scenarios. However they differ in their particulars, those questions may be easier to answer if you can identify which bucket each one falls into. Here's a breakdown, and what you can do to prepare..."

"Big Data storage poses challenges, yet those challenges can be addressed - with the right strategy.

Everyone is talking about massive data growth, but not enough of us are talking about the challenges of understanding that data and creating actionable information from it to make better decisions.

The problem is way more complex than has been presented, and the stakes couldn't be higher. To help you make better sense of your data and prepare for the future, I'll address a number of Big Data challenges that have to be solved before we can say we have learned everything we can about our data - and taken all the steps we need to protect ourselves and others.

"With the proliferation of cloud applications, IAM solutions are a necessity.

New web applications are making their way into the workplace at an unprecedented rate. By 2017, enterprises are projected to rely on an average of 52 cloud applications at work, leaving employees with a pool of credentials to keep track of. If you don't take the necessary precautions to keep your credentials secure, your accounts and data are at risk of being compromised. With these tips for good password hygiene and deploying an identity and access management (IAM) solution, you can keep your data safe from the rapidly evolving threat landscape. Richard Walters, senior vice president of security products at Intermedia, offers these tips..."

"The term 'serverless architecture' can be somewhat misleading. After all, it's not as if your applications literally don't run on servers. Instead, the server and infrastructure is essentially hidden from you, typically managed by a service provider. This is appealing to many as it frees the business up to focus resources almost strictly on the application and not on the underlying components. In many ways, it's just the next logical step in the data center. We've moved from server virtualization to containers and finally to serverless architectures..."

"Liquid cooling is a wave that never seems to quite break. It's always going to be a big thing, sometime in the future. There's not a huge take-up of the technology, but there's always plenty of news to report.

Fundamentally, the technology is great because it removes heat passively, with very little energy input, and the waste heat emerges in a highly concentrated and therefore useable form: water at more the 45 degrees C can be used to heat buildings or warm greenhouses to grow plants..."

"Tape-based backup received a bad rap, but the technology is coming back strong. Explore three reasons why tape could be a good data backup option for your organization...

Like it or not, the chances are good that your data will end up on magnetic tape.

Looking at shipments of Linear Tape-Open (LTO) media cartridges, tape backup systems are continuing to gain ground, even in this era of NAND flash arrays and NVM Express architectures. Recent news from the LTO Consortium proclaimed that approximately 76,000 petabytes (PB) of compressed data was stored to tape in 2015 -- a 17.5% increase over the previous year -- and that more than 385,000 PB of capacity has shipped since the LTO tape cartridge was introduced in 2000..."

In this video from ACM Applicative 2016, Brendan Gregg from Netflix presents: System Methodology - Holistic Performance Analysis on Modern Systems.

"Traditional systems performance engineering makes do with vendor-supplied metrics, often involving interpretation and inference, and with numerous blind spots. Much in the field of systems performance is still living in the past: documentation, procedures, and analysis GUIs built upon the same old metrics. For modern systems, we can choose the metrics, and can choose ones we need to support new holistic performance analysis methodologies..."

"Being a developer today is perhaps more exhilarating than at any other time in history. We have incredible choice when it comes to languages and frameworks, and tools like GitHub and StackOverflow have connected millions to make sharing code and expertise simple and fast. These conveniences have allowed us all to spend more of our time being creative and honing our craft, rather than fighting with source code repos and ancient languages. But in this age of global sharing and constant collaboration, one of our most important development tools, the IDE, has remained stubbornly individual and private. Why?..."

"In 1994, two NASA employees connected 16 commodity workstations together using a standard Ethernet LAN and installed open-source message passing software that allowed their number-crunching scientific application to run on the whole 'cluster' of machines as if it were a single entity. Their do-it-yourself, McGyver-like efforts were motivated by a frustration with the pricing, availability and maturity of then existing massively parallel processors, e.g., nCube, Thinking Machines, Convex and Cray..."

Nexenta (@Nexenta), the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS), announced the general availability (GA) of the enterprise and community editions of NexentaFusion 1.0, simplified storage management and analytics, and the newest version of NexentaStor 5.0, the company's flagship OpenSDS solution.

Nexenta announced that validated VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) customers are eligible for an exclusive promotion of NexentaConnect. NexentaConnect for VMware Virtual SAN provides NFS and SMB file services for Virtual SAN with integrated management through VMware vCenter. The resulting solution brings software-defined file services to VMware Virtual SAN hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) customers.

The promotion is available through December 30th, 2016 and includes a NexentaConnect for VMware Virtual SAN license with an unlimited number of licensed sockets to match customer's VMware Virtual SAN licenses as well as day-zero Nexenta technical support for 12 months.

Nexenta the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS),
announced that it is a gold sponsor of Dell's EMEA Be Future Ready '16 City Tour,
alongside technology partner SanDisk, a Western Digital Corporation brand.

Covering 38 cities across 19 countries, Dell's EMEA Be Future Ready '16 City Tour will bring
together industry experts and the leading technology organisations to showcase,
demonstrate and discuss the latest trends and innovations that are shaping the
'future-ready' enterprise. The one day event will split its focus between five business themes:

The enterprise-wide orientation towards IT-as-a-service

Metric-based service-centric IT

Cross-functional teams and their enablement

Increasing visibility of end-to-end IT service

Implementing consistent vendor selection processes and criteria

As joint gold sponsors, Nexenta and SanDisk will co-exhibit at each event,
providing attendees with the opportunity to discover how Nexent's growing
portfolio of industry disrupting OpenSDS solutions is leading the charge towards the
Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC). Nexenta executives will also be on-hand to discuss how the
SDS solutions are freeing businesses from the expensive shackles of vendor lock-in, while
providing storage architectures with unparalleled reliability, agility and scalability.

Resiliency Platform empowers organizations to maintain critical business uptime across complex,
multi-platform and multi-vendor private, public and hybrid cloud environments by delivering predictability
for all resiliency operations, including workload migration, failover, failback, data protection,
and non-disruptive recovery testing. The built-in data mover in
Resiliency Platform 2.0 simplifies the management of critical services' uptime by integrating seamlessly
into VMware environments, so organizations can gain greater benefits from their existing VMware investments.
In addition, organizations can achieve increased benefits from other IT investments with Resiliency
Platform's support for industry-leading high availability solutions, 3rd party hardware-based data
movers and other virtualization platforms such as Microsoft Hyper-V.

Veritas is bringing together a wide range of industry and technology leaders at its Veritas Vision 2016 conference on September 12-14, 2016 at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Register now for a conference and expo pass.

In a world where data is the new currency, Vision 2016 will foster important conversations about the future of information management. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and learn how to maximize their investments in cloud, open source and software-defined storage while maintaining control of their most critical asset - data.

"The exponential growth of data and the resources needed to manage it are two of the most pressing issues facing businesses today," said Lynn Lucas, chief marketing officer at Veritas.

"It's not just the volume of data. It's also where it resides and how it travels between private and public clouds, virtual environments and back to on premises. Businesses must have a strategy for data and information management, and Vision is the industry conference dedicated to helping organizations hear best practices from other industry leaders and fine tune their own strategies."

Taiwan businesses are positioned for an Internet of Things (IoT) application boost. Taiwan Mobile has selected the Cisco Jasper Control Center to help its customers unlock new revenue streams, introduce new customer services and, at the same time, manage costs and monetize through various IoT application services.

With the Control Center platform, Taiwan Mobile will offer a complete plug-and-play IoT solution that can be easily configured to provide analysis, automation, and diagnostic intelligence. It offers solutions across any industry - including connected car, mobile payment, manufacturing, smart cities, and public transportation...

Microsoft Corp. and Lenovo announced on a deepening of their strategic relationship. Lenovo will load Microsoft's productivity apps - including Microsoft Office, OneDrive and Skype - on select Lenovo devices that use the Android operating system. Lenovo expects to ship millions of these Android-based devices worldwide over the next several years. This expanded collaboration between Microsoft and Lenovo also includes a patent cross-licensing agreement that covers Lenovo and Motorola devices.

"Microsoft's thrilled that our productivity apps will be pre-installed on Lenovo's premium devices," said Nick Parker, corporate vice president OEM Division, Microsoft. "The marriage of Microsoft's apps and Lenovo's Android-based devices will enable customers around the world to be more productive, more connected and achieve even more."

Bodhi Healthcare Group turned to IBM to develop a new cloud-based healthcare platform built on the IBM LinuxONE to power a new cloud-based healthcare platform to support the new technology branch of Qingdao Municipal Hospital Group. By leveraging the security, scale and reliability of LinuxONE, the Bodhi Healthcare Cloud Platform offers an integrated, private cloud solution to promote information exchange within and between hospitals, aid in treatment decision-making and help drive seamless interactions between patients and their care providers.

Also announced today is IBM's "Flash In," a storage migration program designed to help companies looking to leverage IBM's expertise, like Dell and EMC clients, easily transition to IBM storage solutions as part of a journey to become cloud and cognitive businesses.

IBM has been recognized as a Leader for Flash Storage in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays (SSA).

According to Gartner, "Vendors in the Leaders quadrant have the highest scores for their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. A vendor in the Leaders quadrant has the market share, credibility, and marketing and sales capabilities needed to drive the acceptance of new technologies. These vendors demonstrate a clear understanding of market needs; they are innovators and thought leaders; and they have well-articulated plans that customers and prospects can use when designing their storage infrastructures and strategies. In addition, they have a presence in the five major geographical regions, consistent financial performance and broad platform support."

IBM announced the opening of a new IBM Cloud Data Center in Korea, in collaboration with SK Holdings C&C. Located outside of Seoul in Pangyo, the new data center is designed to support growing cloud adoption and customer demand across the country.

According to IDC, a leading information technology research firm, the public cloud services market in Korea is expected to grow from $445 million in 2015 to approximately $1B in 2019.

IBM named the first five winners of the company's new IBM Health Corps grants, providing $2.5 million worth of public health-related pro bono consulting by some of IBM's most talented employees around the world over the next six months.

The first projects aim to increase the availability of chemotherapy medicines in sub Saharan Africa; better track and control Zika, dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases in Taiwan and Panama; foster more informed community health interventions in the Southeast United States; and increase access to diagnostic radiology in underserved countries.

The Fujitsu Social Mathematics Joint Research Unit within the Institute of Mathematics for Industry at Kyushu University, Itoshima City in Fukuoka Prefecture, and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the start of a joint field trial that, using a form of artificial intelligence that automatically evolves to gradually learn human preferences, seeks to match people wanting to relocate to Itoshima to appropriate candidate locations within the city.

VMware, Inc. announced new VMware Ready for NFV certified solutions, further demonstrating its ongoing commitment to supporting communications service providers (CSPs) in the adoption and production deployment of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). These new certified solutions from Brocade, Check Point, Infoblox, Mitel and Netrounds support virtualized mobile infrastructure and SD-WAN.

The complete list of VMware Ready for NFV certified solutions is available on the VMware Solution Exchange (VSX). VMware Ready for NFV allows partners to certify their virtual network functions (VNFs) for interoperability with two fundamental VMware NFV components: NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) and a Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM). The VMware Ready certification provides CSPs with the confidence that VMware partner VNF solutions will seamlessly and effectively deploy, run, and interoperate with VMware vCloud NFV. The VMware Ready program designates VMware's highest level of endorsement for products and solutions created by our established partners, and accreditation builds customer confidence and accelerates further opportunities for collaboration as leaders in the cloud.

VMware, Inc. announced that Amway, iGov Technologies and SugarCreek have implemented
VMware Virtual SAN, the leading hyper-converged solution with more than 5,000 customers.
Year over year, the VMware Virtual SAN customer base has grown 200 percent.

Amway, iGov and SugarCreek are running VMware Virtual SAN in support of enterprise business
critical applications and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). These customers are taking advantage
of the cloud-like flexibility and simplicity of Virtual SAN deployed in a hyper-converged
form factor that minimizes both capital and operational expenses. VMware Virtual SAN provides
shared storage for virtualized production environments with a simple scale-out model
that leverages server hardware from every major server provider to deliver lower total
cost of ownership than any enterprise storage solution.

VMware announced key strategic alliances in the Internet of Things (IoT) space to help bridge the gap between IT and operational technology (OT) worlds. VMware has formed alliances with Bayshore Networks, Dell, Intwine Connect, Deloitte Digital, PTC and V5 Systems.

According to IDC's "Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide," IoT spending will grow to nearly $1.3 trillion by 2019. While businesses look to integrate IoT into their organizations and offerings, significant changes must be made for IoT to reach enterprise grade and scale. In its current state, the operations side of the business primarily drives IoT. As the shift turns from pilot projects to enterprise production, IT involvement is necessary for efficient management and security.

The Friday Five is a weekly Red Hat blog post with 5 of the week's top news items and ideas from or about Red Hat and the technology industry. Consider it your weekly digest of things that caught our eye.

Red Hat Blog - 25 things that are better because of Linux (and open source)

As bandwidth requirements and the need for flexible, high capacity solutions continue to grow, Level 3 Communications has completed work on two network expansions in Westchester County, New York. The fiber sub-loops provide enterprise customers with access to Level 3's global product portfolio, additional business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) services as well as fiber path diversity.

Key Facts:

The expansions build on Level 3's existing network in New York, adding a 2.5-mile sub-loop from Tarrytown to Hawthorne and a 5-mile sub-loop through Purchase

As part of the expansion, Level 3 can deliver up to 100 Gigabyte speeds for business internet and data in addition to Level 3's full product and services portfolio which includes SIP, Security, Cloud, Hybrid WAN

Level 3's global fiber-optic network stretches for more than 200,000 miles with connections in more than 60 countries and 500 major cities around the globe

Level 3 Communications, Inc. is a Champion of the upcoming National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) 2016. It joins a growing global effort among businesses, government agencies, colleges and universities, associations, nonprofit organizations and individuals to promote online safety awareness. As an official Champion, designated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), Level 3 continues to demonstrate its commitment to cybersecurity through the delivery of secure enterprise business solutions and educational programs designed to teach people how they can be safer online.

EMC Corporation announced the release of new application integration and management features in the EMC XtremIO all-flash storage platform for VMware and Microsoft virtualized environments. The new XtremIO features offer a rich set of workflow automation integrations that enable application and infrastructure teams to take full advantage of simplified resource provisioning and management workflows, automation and orchestration in virtualized environments. Integrated Copy Data Management (iCDM) functionality also helps reduce the need to purchase separate dedicated hardware and software to manage copy data sprawl...

EMC announced general availability for EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud v4.0, as well as planned enhancements for both Enterprise Hybrid Cloud and EMC Native Hybrid Cloud, designed to help customers advance their journey for both traditional and cloud-native applications. Enterprise Hybrid Cloud v4.0 extends IT's ability to update legacy application infrastructure to meet the demands of a digital world. A new Native Hybrid Cloud offering built on hyper-converged VCE VxRail Appliances provides a platform that delivers a simple, fast and easy path toward the development and deployment of cloud native applications...

EMC Corporation unveils new products and support that optimize the protection of VMware workloads across the spectrum of VMware environments to enable protection everywhere. This includes enhanced support for VMware Virtual SAN, VMware vSphere and expanded data protection options for VCE VxRail Appliances.

The integration between EMC's data protection portfolio and VMware software empowers vAdmins to provision, monitor and manage the protection of their virtual workloads through the standard VMware interface. The updated version of EMC Data Protection Suite for VMware combined with EMC Data Domain Virtual Edition, provide fast, simple and efficient protection for VMware workloads, enabling continuous end-to-end protection through the native VMware interface. Meanwhile, the support of RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (VMs) for VMware vSphere APIs for IO filtering, empowers vAdmins to manage replication through vSphere Storage Policy-Based Management, leveraging the common VMware framework.

Early in her career, Meg Whitman got some pivotal advice: speak up. The president of The Walt Disney Company Frank Wells told her that she needed to talk. At the HPE Discover Women In Tech Panel in June 2016, she recalled Wells telling her, "You need to speak up because you are just as smart as these guys but if we don't hear from you, we won't know that. So, make yourself speak."

She not only found her voice, but as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise she created a culture to give women a louder voice in the boardroom and throughout the company...

Brocade reported financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended July 30, 2016. These results include approximately two months of financial results from Ruckus Wireless, which was acquired on May 27, 2016. Brocade reported third quarter revenue of $591 million, up 7% year-over-year and up 13% quarter-over-quarter. The Company reported GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.02, down from $0.21 in Q3 2015 and from $0.11 in Q2 2016...

According to a five-year progress report the company released today, Comcast's acclaimed Internet Essentials program has helped connect 750,000 families, or 3 million low-income Americans, to low-cost, high-speed Internet service at home. David L. Cohen, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of Comcast Corporation, made the announcement alongside six-time Olympic Medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who was recently named the national spokesperson for Internet Essentials. The two kicked off a multi-city tour that, over the next six weeks, will stop in Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Denver, and Philadelphia where the company will announce more than $2 million in grants to community-based organizations that provide vital digital literacy training and internet access.

Comcast Business announced that it has expanded its fiber network in Tallahassee to offer local businesses Ethernet services with speeds up to 100 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) and a variety of other Comcast Business services, including, internet, Voice, TV services and cloud-based computing solutions.

Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., is now offering a new series of solutions designed for the software-defined data center, empowering customers to realize the full power of digital transformation, which requires a modern, agile IT environment in order to take advantage of cloud, open-source and emerging technologies to deliver reliable IT services.

The company today announced support for VMware NSX network virtualization platform, which when combined with the trusted family of high-performance converged and hyperconverged infrastructure systems from Hitachi Data Systems provides a solid foundation for powering solutions that customers can build upon with confidence. Now, Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) customers will benefit from NSX, which will help automate deployment of applications with complete networking services and advanced network virtualization capabilities. NSX helps them improve security with microsegmentation and granular security policy enforcement. Hitachi Data Systems has entered into an OEM agreement whereby the company will sell VMware NSX for use with Hitachi Unified Compute Platform.

Windstream, a leading provider of advanced network communications, submitted a formal bid on a cable TV franchise agreement with the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State to bring its Kinetic television service to more than 50,000 homes, primarily across 13 North Carolina communities. The bid is part of Windstream's ongoing effort to introduce faster Internet speeds and new technologies to customers.

Leveraging a 100 percent fiber-backed network, the total entertainment option will give users a wide array of features and the highest quality video entertainment.

"There is currently a lot of buzz about network and data-centric security but not nearly as much about the app-centric brand.

Enterprise security specialist F5 and the Ponemon Institute teamed up for a comprehensive study on application-centric security and released the results exclusively to eWEEK on Aug. 22.

The report, based on a survey of security professionals about their approach to protecting the applications that are critical to running their businesses, highlights why traditional security methods are no longer effective..."

NetApp, a VMworld Global Diamond sponsor, will share strategies to help customers optimize their transition to the modern data center at VMworld 2016. NetApp will also showcase its industry-leading flash portfolio and its newest joint innovations with VMware.

This conference is a unique opportunity for customers to learn from NetApp experts about innovative ways to simplify, accelerate, and cloud-enable their VMware environments. VMworld opens on August 28 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center in Las Vegas and runs through September 1.

NetApp announced that it has been named a Leader in the 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays, based on its ability to execute and its completeness of vision. According to Gartner, Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow.

"We believe our position as a Leader in this year's Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays underscores the fact that NetApp is enabling customers' successful transition to flash," said George Kurian, chief executive officer of NetApp. "As flash replaces hard disk drives for primary workloads, we are winning against and replacing both established and emerging vendors because of the successful business outcomes enabled by our highly differentiated all-flash-array portfolio."

The four finalists all demonstrate innovative use of NetApp flash technologies to drive simplicity and flexibility. They also possess the ability to move quickly to capture new revenue opportunities with game-changing products and services.

The annual NetApp Innovation Awards recognize companies that are leveraging technology to make IT dramatically more proactive, productive, and essential to the business. This years winner will be determined by total number of online votes cast from now through September 12, 2016. The top vote-getter will be announced on the first day of NetApp Insight - the company's annual technical conference -- on Sept 26, 2016.